This seems HUGE! OK so we woke up this morning only to hear that a luxury yacht

[malaise]

was seized in Plymouth, England.
Oops - cocaine worth £160m (you heard that right) was seized. An English man and five Nicaraguans were arrested. It was on our news because the shipped was Jamaican-flagged. No Jamaicans were aboard. How and why was Australia involved in this?

Here are some links
Six men arrested in £160m cocaine haul off Plymouth coast
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-58528515

Six men including a Briton have been arrested off the coast of Plymouth after authorities seized more than two tonnes (2,000kg) of cocaine.

The British man, from Stockton-on-Tees, and five Nicaraguans were arrested on a luxury yacht on Thursday.

The men, aged from 24 to 49, were held on suspicion of drug trafficking and remain in custody, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Officers estimate the street value of the drugs is about £160m.

The group were sailing in the Jamaican-flagged Kahu when they were intercepted 80 miles off the coast, in international waters north of Guernsey.

The yacht, which had sailed from the Caribbean, was intercepted and boarded by specialist Border Force and NCA officers.
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https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/126356565/exnavy-vessel-transformed-into-super-yacht-in-new-plymouth-caught-up-in--multimilliondollar-international-drug-bust

A former New Zealand Navy patrol ship, which was transformed into a luxury yacht by a former New Plymouth business, has been caught up in a $225 million international drug bust.

The Australian Federal Police and the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) intercepted the charter yacht Kahu in international waters on Friday, on its way from the Caribbean to Britain, and seized 2000 kilograms (two tonnes) of cocaine.

Six people – five Nicaraguan nationals and one UK citizen, aged from 24 to 49 – were arrested.

Australian officers based in the UK tipped off the NCA about an alleged transnational drugs syndicate using the Jamaican-flagged vessel to coordinate cocaine shipments.
--------------------------
https://www.superyachtnews.com/fleet/new-zealand-build-exploration-yacht-seized-in-drugs-investigation

M/Y Kahu, a converted ex-navy patrol vessel with a complex history, provides a cautionary tale for the potential misuse of an ageing fleet…
Intercepted in international waters off the south coast of the UK, 6 individuals aboard the 37m New Zealand-built M/Y Kahu have been arrested, and 2000kg of cocaine seized.

Built at Whangarei Engineering & Construction Ltd (WECO) in 1979, it originally served as a small navy patrol vessel before being purchased and undergoing an extensive refit at Fitzroy Yachts in 2011. The then-owner of both Kahu and the Fitzroy Yachts yard, Peter White-Robinson, when interviewed by SuperyachtNews in 2012, outlined his family’s plan for Kahu to undertake a full round-the-world itinerary, finishing in 2015.

Kahu set sail in August 2012; however, after reaching Canada in May 2013, Fitzroy Yachts fell into financial difficulties, and White-Robinson stepped down. The voyage was cancelled, and Kahu was sold. The exploration focussed refit of Kahu was extensive, as White-Robinson said at the time: “We added a lot of equipment like a sewage treatment plant, watermakers, a third generator, stabilisers, bow and stern thrusters and an extra anchoring system. We’ve upgraded all the electronics and GPS, radar, and we have a whole different suite of instruments up there in the bridge." Most importantly, considering the travel itinerary planned, its fuel capacity was upped from 13,000l to 32,000l, giving an 8000-mile range at 8 knots, as White-Robinson continued, “The navy listed their range as being 1300 miles, so we have a much better range now.”

Kahu’s last known asking price was around €1.5 million and it was seized with what has been estimated as €200 million worth of cocaine on board. Considering the potential range and capabilities of the vessel, its repurposing is easier to understand. At a superficial level, the regularity of crossings from the Caribbean and Latin America to the UK and Europe may have implied that this voyage was not out of the ordinary. However, initial reports suggest that a coordinated investigation between The Australian Federal Police and the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) was tracking the vessel and aware of its cargo. It also serves as a warning to the industry; there are many smaller, ageing and private vessels that can be misused.

[Johnny2X2X]

1. The War on Drugs is an amoral failure

Including seizures like this that do nothing to stop the flow of drugs into populations.

Legalizing and regulating drugs while treating addicition is the only sane response.

[USALiberal]

4. Legalize coccaine? LSD? Nt

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Yes!

Prohibition doesn't work. And LSD is actually good for most people.

Cocaine is not as big of a deal as people makes it out to be either. Legalize, regulate, and treat addiction.

Legalizing drugs can actually reduce their use if done correctly.

[Beastly Boy]

9. I am assuming that the argument in favor of legalizing all drugs has to do with

reducing rates of addiction, or at the very least mitigating the social, economic and general health damage that is associated with addiction. Are there legitimate studies that support this assumption?

I am genuinely interested.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. There are cases of whole countries that are valuable

https://transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-decriminalisation-in-portugal-setting-the-record-straight

Legalizing and regulating is more than just about reducing addiction though, it's about freedom. Having the freedom to do what one chooses with their own body.

The War on Drugs is a travesty that hasn't produced any desirable outcomes.

[Beastly Boy]

15. Thanks for the link. An interesting study.

Having an entire country as a subject is, in this case, more helpful in reaching wide-ranging conclusions that are not limited to matters of addiction. Even though Portugal didn't legalize drug use (it was merely decriminalized it), the effects appear to be wide-ranging. Still, the case of Portugal is not about allowing one the freedom to do what one wants with one's body: there are still penalties, enforced on a progressive scale, for even individual drug use. And drugs, as I understand it, are not legally available for sale, with wholesale distribution of drugs still forbidden and criminally punishable.

The Portugal experiment appears to point to the middle ground between completely criminalizing drug use and completely legalizing it.

[Orrex]

16. It seems to me that "freedom" becomes less of a factor once addiction takes hold

I agree that our war on drugs has been a disaster (though it's been glowingly successful at its real goal), but it seems that we need a better framework than "eh, do what you want" when dealing with powerfully addictive substances.

Oxycontin was controlled but legal, and look where that's gotten us.

[fescuerescue]

40. And we completely over-reacted to the Oxycontin issue

[Orrex]

41. I'm sure that's a great comfort to the dead and the addicted.

[ProfessorGAC]

43. Problem Is...

...that the prohibition approach didn't stop anything.
The failure of the effort is manifest in the very number of addictions & deaths to which you refer.
Not only is it stigmatized, but it has to be underground because of the punitive approach.
And, speaking of "comfort" the reaction to the pain killer issue has now made it nearly impossible for true pain patients to regularly get meds.
So, let's not ignore the discomfort caused by doubling down on a failed approach.

[fescuerescue]

46. Not to mention those in pain now

who legitimately need those meds.

But can't get any longer because doctors are afraid of getting sued.

[LiberatedUSA]

25. The problem is some drugs make you crazy.

Drugs like meth are harmful to us all, because users will kill for their next fix, not to mention how crazy they become on the drug. Petting a hot stove because they think they are petting a dog.

The ones like that should remain illegal. There are enough drugs that don’t make you insane, that should suffice for getting high.

[wnylib]

17. Sounds like you've had too much LSD already.

[NoSheep]

27. How much is too much LSD?

[wnylib]

29. Enough that you lose your ability to reason.

[NoSheep]

38. Do you think parachute jumping should be illegal?

[Voltaire2]

39. you didn't answer the question.

how much is too much lsd?

be specific.

[11 Bravo]

36. That depends. If it's Owsley, tread lightly.

[wnylib]

20. "Prohibition doesn't work."

Neither do a society's laws against murder prevent murders from happening. Should we legalize murder? That's not just hyperbole. Drug addictions kill.

[Johnny2X2X]

21. Prohibition doesn't prevent addiction, at all!

Treatment and education prevent addiction.

[wnylib]

28. Treatment can help to overcome

addictions. I am all for treatment as an alternative to incarceration for addiction. But I do favor incarceration for the big time dealers who profit from addicting people.

Education is overrated because addictions are more likely to be driven by social, psychological, and emotional causes than by lack of information.

[Voltaire2]

37. compulsory treatment also doesn't work

People have to want to get clean. Forcing them into for-profit treatment facilities is just another facet of the drug war racket.
Also if your real concern is the "the big time dealers who profit from addicting people", which quite honestly I doubt, then again legalization will remove much of the profit, and in fact could remove all of the profit if we wanted to.

[Voltaire2]

33. correction: adulterated drug products kill

addicts are rarely trying to commit suicide. They are killed by adulterants, unknown dosages, lethal ingredient substitutions, incarceration, diseases spread by shared needles, violence associated with the drug trade etc. Opioid addiction in particular will generally not kill you if you have access to clean needles, unadulterated supplies with known dosages, and a safe way to acquire and use your drugs.

[Ligyron]

45. Thank you for a dose of sanity.

I think there’s a little Calvinistic, puritanical attitude involved here as well, like: you can’t have that much fun with so little effort. You’re supposed to suffer in this veil of tears, damnit!

Much like the abortion issue is really a lot about insuring consequences for having casual sex. And gawd forbid you should combine the two as millions do all the time.

[Voltaire2]

8. yes of course.

why should possession of either of these be a reason to put people into prisons? How does that reduce harm?

[Beastly Boy]

11. In cases like this, it would depend on who profits from the sales of drugs.

If the profits go to support criminal enterprises, the reduction in harm is very substantial.

BTW, my comment points to one argument in favor of legalizing and regulating all drugs.

[Voltaire2]

13. well gosh if the enterprise was legalized then problem solved.

We created the illegal market. The cartels are the evil twins of the DEA. They both feed off of the War on Drugs and are responsible for the vast majority of the harm caused by prohibited substances.

If you want to reduce harm: legalize drugs. If you want to continue punishing people for what you consider immoral behavior and maintain the cartels and the drug-prison gulags, and the drug police, continue the status quo.

[Johnny2X2X]

18. Very well put

Drugs are currently illegal because people want to enforce their morality on others. It has nothing to do with addiction reduction as we know the criminalization of drugs doesn't prevent addiction.

When people hear, "legalize drugs", they assume that means "more people do drugs." When that's simply not the case.

This entire system of militarized police and mega corporations that are the cartels is harmful to the health of the people. You've got prisons filled with people for selling drugs. You've got law enforcement dressing up like Navy Seals and terrorizing neighborhoods and risking their own lives to police morality.

Legalize them, it eliminates the black market. Legal weed has already done this in many parts of the country.

[Tommymac]

34. But the for profit prisons provide cheap help desk services to the Corporations.

Gotta keep those stock prices up and the share holders and owner class happy.

[Beastly Boy]

26. A sharp observation: DEA and the cartels appear to have developed a symbiotic relationship.

One feeds off the other in a perpetually circular pattern: in a very neo-classical pattern of supply and demand, DEA works on reducing supply of drugs while the demand for them remains unchanged, thus increasing the cartel profits which get invested back into the criminal enterprises making those enterprises more effective in evading the DEA. DEA, in turn, gets budget increases to develop strategies to deal with bigger, more effective cartels, and so on, and so on. Meanwhile, the net effect on drug consumption remains at nearly zero.

I am still not entirely convinced that an outright legalization of drugs will necessarily lead to changes in consumption or its effects, but the current situation appears to be nothing but a scam.

[Johnny2X2X]

35. Agree

And I think people have no idea how sophisticated these cartels are. They are brutally efficient and employ advanced analytics and accounting to track their profits. They lobby politicians. They behave just like most large corporations do. And they do not want drugs to be legalized.

[malaise]

42. THey also have the money needed to hire folks who know what

they are doing

[malaise]

30. Not just criminal enterprises

but RW terrorist organizations as well

[Beastly Boy]

31. Indeed. But I didn't want to afford them the dignity of excluding them from being called criminals

In my eyes, they are terrorist wannabes who lack the acumen to reach beyond the threshold of petty criminality.

[CrackityJones75]

32. Uh. Yeah?

[ZonkerHarris]

44. so you are pro-drug cartels getting tax free money from a business monopoly?

these drugs exist.
the choice is a black market or a legal one.

[joetheman]

2. They should have been flying an Aussie flag and they wouldn't have been stopped, maybe ;)

[malaise]

3. Ships in these parts usually have Panamanian flags

Jamaican flagged is very rare

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. They should have used a burner yacht. NT

[malaise]

7. ROFL

My biggest worry is that these drugs usually fund RW causes

[jmowreader]

14. If you're running two tons of blow in one shipment, any yacht is a burner yacht

I suspect the cocaine aboard this ship was worth more than the vessel. I also suspect this wasn’t their first time doing this.

[MenloParque]

10. Colossal waste of money

So sick of this war on drugs. God damn cowboy and indian shit. Legalize!!

[ananda]

19. Is that what they mean by "false flag" operation?

Just asking.

[malaise]

23. You win the thread

[BradBo]

22. Big deal. Plenty more where that came from.